The German Patent Publication DE 102 07 858 A1 appears to concern a method and system for providing information and for communication in vehicles such as trains, for example, in which vehicle occupants, using electronic devices such as laptops or PDAs (personal digital assistants), are able to access information such as schedule data, messages or entertainment offerings stored locally in the vehicle. The access apparently takes place via radio communication between the electronic devices and radio access points, which are distributed in the vehicle. In order to permit a high data-transmission rate, and therefore efficient access to the locally stored information, radio technologies such as WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), radio technologies IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth or HYPERLAN/2 are used.
A system of this type is being used in some ICE (Intercity Express) trains of Deutsche Bahn AG in cooperation with T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, and allows passengers of Deutsche Bahn AG to access various information, e.g., from their laptop or PDA with WLAN radio interface.